1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer program product, system, and method having data paths for system component management in a storage management system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a storage system or environment, a storage controller of a server, typically receives input/output (I/O) instructions from a host to write data to or read data from data storage units controlled by the storage controller. The hosts and the storage controller frequently communicate with each other through host adapters through which signal paths between the various hosts and the storage controller pass. A connection fabric often provides the connections between the storage controller and the host adapters.
In a similar manner, the storage units and the storage controller of the storage system frequently communicate with each other through device adapters through which signal paths between the various storage units and the storage controller pass. Here too, a connection fabric often provides the connections between the storage controller and the storage units.
One example of a data path through a connection fabric is a data path which operates in compliance with the Peripheral Component Interface Express (PCIe) protocol. A PCIe data path can frequently provide high speed data transfer rates which are sufficient to support commercial scale data storage operations. In the event that a PCIe data path fails, some storage systems provide redundant PCIe data paths including redundant host adapters, redundant device adapters and other redundant components to provide complete redundant PCIe data paths over which high speed data storage operations between the hosts and storage units may be resumed. In addition, the redundant PCIe data paths can facilitate error data collection to diagnose the cause of the error condition in the data path.
However, the components of such redundant PCIe data paths can significantly increase the cost or complexity of a data storage system. Accordingly, some storage systems may lack redundant PCIe data paths. As a result, in the event of a hardware or software failure in one or more components of the PCIe data paths, both high speed data operations and error data collection for error diagnosis purposes may be fully or partially hindered.